The Most Active Investors In India Tech

With 1.3 billion people and an increasingly connected population, tech startups in India have attracted plenty of investor attention in the last few years, from foreign hedge funds to homegrown angel investors. 2016 saw a record for deals to private tech companies in the country.

We used CB Insights data to identify the country’s most active tech investors from 2012 to 2017 year-to-date (YTD) and the companies that they’ve invested in. With investments into 76 companies since 2012, Blume Ventures was the most active investor in the Indian tech ecosystem.

Companies are listed in order of the highest total funding they’ve raised.

 
Some takeaways from our infographic:

• Indian Angel Network came in second, investing in 64 companies. Angel groups, which bring together a network of angel investors, were some of the most active investors in India. The Mumbai Angels Network came in fifth, closing deals to 48 companies.
• Accel Partners India and Sequoia Capital India were tied for third place. The two are funds raised specifically for India from their respective California-based entities. They each invested in 55 unique companies, but there was no overlap in their investments.
  • Some of Accel’s recent notable investments include its participation in Flipkart’s series J round for $1.5B in March 2017 and food delivery app Swiggy’s $80M Series E round in May 2017.
  • Sequoia Capital India has recently invested in hotel room aggregator Oyo Rooms, participating in a corporate minority worth $250M in April 2017, as well as in healthcare services marketplace Practo Technologies‘ $55M Series D round.
• Two out of the top ten most active investors were foreign firms. New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management invested in 36 companies. SAIF Partners, headquartered in Hong Kong, invested in 35 Indian companies since 2012.
• The size of the rounds that these investors participated in varied widely, with the angel networks closing the smallest deals. The two largest rounds that the Indian Angel Network participated in were both for $2M in 2016. The first was in women’s fashion site FabAlley’s Series A and the second in Uniphore’s Series B.
• The biggest round Blume Ventures participated in was a $30M Series B in 2015 to warehouse automation systems provider Grey Orange Robotics.
• Not included in our ranking are individuals who were also highly active, including Rajan Anandan, the VP of Google India and Southeast Asia, who closed 39 deals – slightly more than Tiger Global Management. Other active individuals were People Group CEO Anupam Mittal at 25 and Ratan Tata, the former chairman of Tata Group, who invested in 24 different companies.